Why Home Movie Videotapes Don?t Last Forever
Why Home Movie Videotapes Don?t Last Forever
The chemical makeup of popular home movie videotape formats unfortunately ensures that they are extremely susceptible to three elements: the passing of time, the number of times they are played or duplicated, and the environment in which they are stored. Unless these tapes are transferred to digital formats, their images and audio will eventually be lost and irretrievable.
Overview
There are three elements to home movie videotape formats that contribute to its eventual degradation, although most consumers are unaware of these factors. These are time, usage, and environment. While camcorder videotape became popular in the 1980s as an inexpensive method for shooting footage of family movies, unfortunately it is not a permanent or durable medium.
Most experts agree that analog videotape begins to degrade
